Dr. Bill McGuire, Owner of the Minnesota United, on Snelling/University Stadium Development

My friend Wes Burdine (who owns the Black Hart Bar) hosts a good local soccer podcast: the Fiftyfive.One Podcast, discussing MNUFC and other soccer matters of the day.

Burdine had none other than Bill McGuire, very rich person, former CEO of United Health Group, and primary owner of the MN United, on the podcast the other day and asked him about how the development at Snelling and University is going so far.

If you recall, the development on the block is the big variable that might make the city's "stadium deal" a good or bad decision. The master plan was inspiring, but so far, there's little on the site apart from parking and huge ads for the team.

Here's what McGuire had to say [listen for yourself, starting around 9:00]:

Wes Burdine: Thinking about the development of the super block. You indicated recently, to one of the District Councils, that it's going slower than anticipated. I'm curious, where is that process right now?  

Bill McGuire: I think it will be spectacular. What I suspect, it has to be sequenced with the stadium. We had to get the stadium done first. Associated with the stadium, there are a number of things that had to get worked out. Then you go, and design the buildings. There’s a master plan, and its a good indicator of what it could be. But there are things in the master plan that I don’t think the developer will want to do it the same way. 

There might be a 25-story building in the master plan [Note: McGuire actually said “250-story building", but that is absurd; he surely meant 25-story building], but I don’t think we want a 25-story building. But how do we get enough mass and density? With lots of human density, but to get the financial part to work so that people will invest in it. 

The biggest thing about it is going back and forth with very smart people about how to make it more like an "urban village", as we talked about in the beginning. A space within a community that works that way. That’s different than saying, I have twelve plots of land and will sell them off and let anyone build whatever they want on that. 

So this is a unique complicated situation in that regard. Things have to work together. The city wanted to create a grid, part of the master plan. That grid changes the dynamics of those buildings and what the relationship is. How do you create something where people are inside and want to come there, live there, work there, take advantage of this transportation area we have already? How do we bring things there that people want? Not just another something... It's way too simple to say we just want to build a bunch of apartments there. 

Right now, the plan has been looking at reorganizing relationships, coming up with what would be first. We also have to consider things like the parking, and where is that, and what are the costs on that. Find some people who believe in this location enough to put their money in there, because this isn’t the team. This is a different deal. 

That’s really what’s been going on. There’s been a lot of energy time and money by people about what that could be. 

I would take on anybody who would say, having what we had, no streets, no sidewalks, no nothing. Now we actually have an infrastructure, we have a grid, and the opportunity is to fit things in there that work 

Wes Burdine: Is there any discussion about the block next to it? Kraus Anderson owns it, it has an empty Wal-Mart. Do you talk about what’s going to happen there versus here? 

Bill McGuire: We’re designing work around what we think works within the super block, bounded by Pascal and Snelling and University and St. Anthony. You gotta be attentive to what’s next door, but we can’t control what’s there. Even the Wal-Mart, what’s going to go in there? Is that going to be a Home Depot? Or is someone going to tear it down? We have to do the best we can to anticipate, but we can’t wait around. 

That may be the east side, but that wouldn’t be first place to build anyway. We still have a shopping center there businesses, let those folks continue. We hear things. When anybody does Herbergers, it has has actually been bought, and there’s discussion about some things to put in there that may be quite good for the neighborhood. And become there’s existing parking and stuff, it might be a good place for things that require a lot of parking. 

Wes Burdine: The types of questions that a lot of fans ask me are on these issues. Whether they live in the neighborhood or want to know what’s happening around it. In terms of the super block what basic timeline does that look like? Will it be done five years from now? 

Bill McGuire: There’s no chance of getting the 25 acres that’s theoretically available — and after the roads is about half that many —  built out in 5 years. That would be ... What we have on paper is potentially, without inflation, $850M of construction. That’s a lot. 
In an ideal world with all the parties coming together, the city as well as investors to get something done, I’d like to see shovels in the ground or planned shovels in the ground by late this year for four buildings. And I think there’s a good line of sight on those buildings, and where they would be, basically trying to sort of frame “the Great Lawn” to make that a center point for the block. Its a big open space, and it isn’t used that much right now, but it could be used a lot. 

You go to Chicago and see Gallagher Way around Wrigley Field, and see that and its a sponsored place and has public classes, yoga classes, movies. It takes something. You have to do certain things to organize it. We’re not far off from being able to do some things, but there are a bunch of technical things that have to be done, and we’re taking to people right now that don’t want to just invest in a building, but want to invest in a community where the vehicle is the building, and what it can provide. For instance, you build an office building, it may not be just a traditional 10-floor office building for companies for 20K to 100K square feet. It might be a smaller building, where you provide opportunities for business that are smaller or more startup businesses and we’ve talked a lot about that . Internally I’ve talked about that with [CM] Dai Thao and Mitra Jalali that’s bringing something to the community jobs interest attraction things that might provide opportunities for businesses that might come to other areas in the community. That’s sort or the purpose. 

The key takeaways for me are that four buildings are coming soon, and that's a lot! I particularly noticed the line where McGuire says he needs "the city" to "come together" to "get something done" there. Does that mean that the developers want more public dollars? The city has already spent over $18.4M to build the streets and other infrastructure on the site.

The other interesting line was about the Herberger's building, and the tantalizing prospect of something "that require[s] a lot of parking" moving into that empty big box store. I wonder what it is?

Also, I hate the term "urban village" and want to exorcise it from the discourse. "Urban villages" are never good.

PS. Home Depot dreams never die.